This started out as a very different idea.
I wanted to make an image that was evocative and melancholy, but also a bit of a horror vibe. Kind of like “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen.
This was the initial prompt:
Vintage 1950s black and white photograph, grainy film texture, high contrast, slight overexposure, natural diffused daylight, documentary photography style. A nude woman sitting under a bronze statute in the style of a classical Greek sculpture, in a park at sunrise
And then I changed it to this:
Vintage 1950s black and white photograph, grainy film texture, high contrast, slight overexposure, natural diffused daylight, documentary photography style. A nude woman sitting under a broken sculpture of a horned god in a clearing in the woods with a foggy atmosphere, with people in black robes visible in the distance
And I do like the images that came out of those prompts and maybe we’ll do something with that idea at some point. But it wasn’t quite as sexy as I hoped.
I wanted to try a different setting. Still atmospheric and dark, but more familiar.
Vintage 1950s black and white photograph, grainy film texture, high contrast, slight overexposure, natural diffused daylight, documentary photography style. A nude woman with long hair standing in the open doorway of a dark house at night
And I like a lot of what came out of that batch of photos – it does have that melancholy vibe and I think there’s a subtle horror creeping in from the edges as you start to contemplate why she’s in this dark house alone. But it still wasn’t quite what I was looking for.
And I think part of it is because the doorway photos have a kind of liminal quality to them – so it’s hard to imagine yourself in that situation, because it seems to be this space that exists outside of our normal reality. And sometimes that works, but for fantasies you usually need some connection to reality.
So this was my next thought:
Vintage 1950s black and white photograph, grainy film texture, high contrast, slight overexposure, natural diffused daylight, documentary photography style. A nude woman with long hair standing on a beach and holding a surfboard at dawn
And this finally felt right. Because I could feel myself there.
And as that happened I could feel a specific place and time that I couldn’t feel with the other prompts:
Vintage 1950s black and white photograph, grainy film texture, high contrast, slight overexposure, natural diffused daylight, documentary photography style. A nude woman with long hair standing on a beach holding a surfboard at dawn, talking to a man in casual clothing
A highly detailed and realistic black and white documentary photograph from the 1950s. A nude blonde female with a natural 1950s body and hair is standing on a beach at sunrise
Vintage 1950s black and white photograph, grainy film texture, high contrast, slight overexposure, natural diffused daylight, documentary photography style. A nude woman with long hair swimming at a beach at dawn
A highly detailed and realistic black and white documentary photograph from the 1950s. A nude blonde female with a natural 1950s body and hair is standing on a beach at sunrise
Vintage 1950s black and white photograph, grainy film texture, high contrast, slight overexposure, natural diffused daylight, documentary photography style. A nude woman with long hair surfing in the ocean
And I lived in Mission Beach when I was young – so this felt right to me – the loneliness and emptiness of the early morning – the strange sunrises where time slows down.
And while it’s not a perfect 1950s vibe – I kind of lost the melody of that song as the project went on – I think that anachronism combined with the black and white aesthetic makes it feel kind of timeless – like a photo you could step inside of.
If you need an Internet checkpoint, take a look at this recent video:
Or if you want a different kind of beach vibe:
Leave a Reply